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More than two dozen Grand Rapids-area businesses decided last year that the time was right to spend millions of dollars on new facilities or to expand buildings they already had.

The Right Place Inc., the Grand Rapids area's economic development agency, estimated that new payroll created in 2013 in the development and expansion projects in which the organization was involved totaled nearly $68 million, while new investment was more than $102 million.

Tim Mroz, vice president of marketing and communications for The Right Place, said 997 jobs were retained by the projects and 1,586 created.

He said 2013, with 18 expansion projects on the Right Place Inc. annual report, had more projects than in any one year in the past 10 years.

"The reaction that we got from all of the businesses was simply now was the right time," Mroz said. "They didn't articulate why it was the right time, it was just the right time."

Those 18 projects were not the only development work in Grand Rapids in 2013. Additional projects were not included on the Right Place list because the organization was not involved in them.

That is not to suggest those projects lacked impact.Some of the oldest, ugliest buildings in Grand Rapids were given new life as another wave of renovation swept through the business district and the Medical Mile — a health and life science campus anchored by Spectrum Health, the Van Andel Institute and the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

In the suburbs, one mall lost its roof, while another shopping center gained a nationally renowned tenant, and two sports complexes were built from the ground up.

One of the projects not only made what was frightful attractive again but also was one of the first in Michigan to use a new program — the Michigan Community Revitalization Program — meant to replace the state's tax incentives for brownfield and historic properties.

Here is a breakdown of the region's major projects in 2013.

Grand Rapids

Downtown might not have had as many construction cranes in the skies as were present during the boom years of the construction of Medical Mile in the late 1990s, but two of the most notable projects on Division Avenue involved the rehabilitation of two of Grand Rapids' iconic eyesore structures.

The architectural and engineering firm TowerPinkster anchored the redevelopment of 4 East Fulton, a building that was vacant for 15 years in downtown Grand Rapids.

TowerPinkster has leased the 7,488-square-foot second floor of the building, owned by Locus Development. The first floor of the two-story building has been set aside for retail space.

The investment total for the project was not available.

Photo by Matthew Taylor
The 616 Lofts at The Kendall are the culmination of a $4 million project that includes residential space above and retail on the ground floor.

Across the street from 4 East Fulton, 616 Development turned the old Kendall Building, which had been vacant for nearly two decades, into the 616 Lofts at The Kendall. The $4 million project includes market-rate residential units on the top three floors ranging from studios to two-bedroom units, with rents from $1,000 to $1,600 a month; about 3,000 square feet of commercial office space that is the new headquarters of 616 Development and 616 Lofts; and another 3,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.

Monica Clark, director of community development for 616 Lofts, said the project was able to use grants from the new Community Revitalization Program and the Obsolete Property Rehabilitation Act to help offset construction costs.

"We were told (by MEDC officials) we were a guinea pig for the CRP," Clark said.

Photo by Michael Bulthuis
High-tech bus stops are designed to speed travel from Grand Rapids' southern suburbs north to the Medical Mile.

Division Avenue also saw the construction of the first 30 of 33 rapid transit high-tech bus stops, designed to speed travel through the heart of the revitalized downtown business district from the southern suburbs north to the Medical Mile.

Conrad Venema, strategic planning manager for the Grand Rapids mass transit agency The Rapid, said the $39 million project is ahead of schedule by one station and should come in under budget.

Bus rapid transit buses are no faster than regular buses. However, because they will operate in dedicated lanes during peak hours, have traffic signal priority — the signal will change from red to green for the buses — and have a prepaid fare system, travel times should be reduced 17 percent to 41 percent on some of the routes.

Grand Valley State University added to the building buzz in downtown Grand Rapids in 2013 with the construction of the four-story, 127,643-square-foot L. William Seidman Center at the school's Seidman College of Business just off Pearl Street, a major east-west artery through downtown.

The $40 million project created a new home for the Michigan headquarters and regional office of the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center.

The Van Andel Global Trade Center, Richard M. and Helen DeVosCenter for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Center for Leadership and Innovation andSeidman College of Business all are housed now in the Seidman Center — as is the Family Business Alliance, operated by the Seidman College of Business and Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce.

Michigan Street Northeast, the center of Grand Rapids' Medical Mile, has become one of the major east-west traffic arteries in the state's second-largest city. The street has been reshaped by the health care and life science community.

Michigan Street also saw one of metro Grand Rapids' larger manufacturing expansion projects. Firstronic LLC spent $2.45 million for building renovations, machinery and equipment. The manufacturer of electronic components is adding 110 jobs to its workforce, an increase of more than $4.5 million in annual payroll.

Although it is not yet one of the major traffic arteries in the Grand Rapids area, Ionia Avenue was the home of one of the most notable construction projects in 2013: the Grand Rapids Downtown Market.

Brian Burch, a spokesman for the market, said the project was the result of cooperation between the public and private sectors, with investment totaling $30 million. Grand Action, the group that was behind projects such as the DeVos Place convention center, put its organizational and philanthropic muscle behind the Downtown Market, raising $12.5 million. Burch said that was used to leverage $15 million in tax credits and grants.

Last year in the Downtown Market, 19 small businesses opened. Burch said that follows "a tradition of urban markets, like Detroit's Eastern Market."

The Downtown Market also was able to take advantage of a Community Revitalization Program loan of up to $3 million by promising to create 295 jobs.

In the extreme northeast corner of Grand Rapids, Walker-based Meijer Inc. spent $3 million to remodel one of its flagship stores on East Beltline Avenue at Knapp Street.

Kentwood

One of the most innovative projects of 2013 occurred on the Kentwood side of that suburb's border with Grand Rapids. There Lormax Stern Development Co. "de-malled" Centerpointe Mall by taking off the roof that made it a mall and putting parking spaces in front of each store.

Karl Zarbo, director of operations for Lormax Stern, declined to release the cost of the project.

A few miles to the west of Centerpointe Mall, also right along the Kentwood-Grand Rapids border, Ventra 5 LLC began a three-year, $16.3 million project that includes the purchase of machinery and the purchase and renovation of an existing building near 28th and BretonRoad.

Ventra, an auto supplier, will launch an automotive lighting product line as part of the expansion, creating 150 jobs and $3.86 million in new payroll.

Cascade Township

To the east of the Ventra expansion, off 28th Street and I-196 — another of the major traffic intersections in metro Grand Rapids — Paris-based Teleperformance has invested $4 million to build a customer support center and hired 500 people with a payroll of $11.8 million. That was the largest expansion project in the industrial service sector, according to the Right Place report.

Grandville

The 2013 retail project that ranked with the Downtown Market for capturing the public's attention was on one of the busiest traffic arteries in the suburbs of Grand Rapids — 44th Street in Grandville.

The complex, just south of the university's W.A. Lettinga Campus and Farmers Insurance Group offices in Caledonia Township, was dedicated last March 20. It includes Davenport's first fields for the university's baseball, softball and tennis programs.

The new athletic complex also houses eight tennis courts.

"There is also an older barn on the property," Volk said, "but I am not sure if that is going to survive."